From Hamburg to Silicon Valley: Why Europe Needs a Bold Vision

Hey,

just got back from a school friend’s wedding in Schleswig Holstein, where I had a Franzbrötchen (Hamburg style). This week’s Serendipity Digest is inspired by Adrian Locher’s post on the European startup ecosystem.

As always: one photo, two ideas, and three cool links.

Enjoy.

📸 Photo of the Week

Two ideas

1. A compelling Vision for Europe: I get fired up listening to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, but I don’t feel the same about Europe yet. How can we build that vision here?
   
   Here’s an idea from my morning pages: Interview German builders in Silicon Valley in German. Ask them how living there changed them, what we can bring back to Europe, and what we have that Silicon Valley needs.
   
   I found that the “OMR Silicon Valley” podcast already exists, so I’ll check it out to see if it inspires me.
   
   Follow-up idea: A European Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley podcast with localized versions for each EU member state. Start with the German edition, then invite others to create their versions (French, Dutch, etc.). This could highlight how different European backgrounds respond to Silicon Valley.
   
   (By the way, should we do this on a German or European level? Starting in German seems good, but what do you think?)

2. You know what changed my life? At sixteen, I boarded a Lufthansa flight to San Francisco, reading “Beraten und verkauft: McKinsey & Co.” I imagined myself as a McKinsey consultant in a boardroom telling CEOs what to do (not naive, I know). But within 24 hours in Silicon Valley, I learned that no one there got excited by McKinsey, and I soon found out why. Eight weeks later, I returned to Germany, the same Dennis but completely changed. I knew I was going to be an entrepreneur.
   
   I feel deep gratitude for that experience. I’m convinced bringing more EU high schoolers to Silicon Valley, exposing them to a new way of thinking, and introducing them to mentors, will pay longterm dividends.

Three cool links

1. “It's the ecosystem, stupid” Adrian Locher on why it’s so important to build out the European entrepreneur and investment ecosystem. He’s right and I like what he’s doing to contribute to that.

2. Leopold Aschenbrenner on Dwarkesh’s Podcast: A 20-year-old German was on the same podcast that had Mark Zuckerberg a few weeks earlier. Here’s the episode. The podcast host, Dwarkesh, is 23, and this week’s guest is Tony Blair. You don’t need to listen to the whole thing unless you have a long car ride like me. Leopold graduated from Columbia University at 17 and was recently fired from OpenAI for allegedly leaking company information. He argues that the OpenAI/ChatGPT narrative should shift from business to national security in the next 3-4 years because he thinks AGI is happening until 2027 (even if wrong, it’s an intellectually interesting idea). However, Leopold is bearish on Germany and explains why in the podcast.

3. “Genome Design: The Bridge to Our Biological Future” is a post by Patrick Collison (Stripe CEO) on a recent Nature publication by his ARC research lab. I’m not sure what it means, but he seems excited. Plus, it’s a cool use case for using an LLM to explain something to a lay audience.

Personal note

Thanks for reading and feel free to reach out with your thoughts and ideas.

Catch you next Sunday!

Best,
Dennis